Flagship acquires exosome IPR

GU Ventures AB is pleased to announce that intellectual property rights (“IPR”) to exosome findings made at the University of Gothenburg, have been acquired by Flagship Ventures in the US. The IP will be commercialized in a new US-based company, Codiak BioSciences that have just announced it is to raise +80 MUSD in venture capital in the US.

GU Ventures AB, wholly owned by the Swedish State and linked to the University of Gothenburg, is pleased to announce that the first granted patent for the transfer of nucleic acids into cells by exosomes has been acquired by Flagship Ventures in the US. The intellectual property rights are based on research performed at the University of Gothenburg and were spun out to an incubator company at GU Ventures, named Exosome Ventures AB.

The deal with Flagship Ventures included upfront payments, as well as milestone payments, and shares in the new US-based company, Codiak BioSciences, that will commercialize these findings together with other findings in the field.

‘We are very excited about the deal and feel that it is the best way to globally commercialize exosome research findings with such great possibilities together with the best of teams and partners’, explains Klementina Österberg, who is the CEO of GU Ventures. ‘We are also happy to be a shareholder in Codiak, through Exosome Ventures, and pleased that the researchers at the University of Gothenburg will still be involved. I would like to thank and congratulate our business development team and the researchers at the University of Gothenburg, for their dedicated work and their efforts to make this deal come true’.

GU Ventures have since the end of 2011 incubated and made a number of investments in Exosome Ventures to support the business development activities and the patent portfolio. All of the owners of Exosome Ventures, which consists of 6 researchers together with GU Ventures, are pleased that their commitment to Exosome Ventures has resulted in this acquisition and that the first patent is already granted in Europe and the U.S.

‘It was clear throughout the negotiations and acquisition that Flagship Ventures wanted to gather all the best intellectual property and world leading researchers together to fully exploit the power of exosomes. It was a pleasure to work with Flagship Ventures and it is great that GU Ventures’ commitment to early stage projects has been rewarded’, says Lorna Fletcher, who is the chairwoman of Exosome Ventures, and business developer and IP strategist at GU Ventures.

Already in 2007, Jan Lötvall, M.D. Ph.D., who is a professor at the Department of Internal Medicine and chairman of the Krefting Research Centre at University of Gothenburg, and newly appointed scientific advisor to Codiak, together with Hadi Valadi, Ph.D., who is associate professor at the University of Gothenburg, were the lead authors on a seminal paper describing the cell-to-cell transfer of nucleic acids via exosomes. Lötvall and Valadi realized the potential of their findings and sought patent protection before the article, which now has over 3000 citations, was published. Both of them are founders and shareholders of Exosome Ventures, together with 3 other research colleagues at University of Gothenburg: Apostolos Bossios, M.D. Ph.D., and Margaretha Sjöstrand, Ph.D., who are associate professors in Lung Medicine, and Karin Ekström, Ph.D., at the Department of Biomaterials.

‘I am very excited’, says Professor Lötvall, ‘that the novelty and uniqueness of our early IPR is acknowledged and that it is utilized for true therapeutic development, with the aim to benefit patients with advanced and difficult to treat diseases.’

In 2012, Jonas A Nilsson, who is professor and group leader at Sahlgrenska Cancer Center at the University of Gothenburg, presented new findings and produced new patents together with Professor Lötvall, aiming to targeting cancer with exosomes. He became shareholder too, when this new IPR was spun out to Exosome Ventures. This IP was also purchased by Flagship Ventures in the deal made with Exosome Ventures.

Flagship Ventures systematically originates and launches transforma­tive companies that it hopes can shape the world’s future. Its Flagship VentureLabs is the first institutional platform for accelerated innovation and parallel entrepreneurship, where the processes of technology invention and company conception are merged and rapidly iterated to generate high potential new venture.

‘At Flagship, we have been involved in exploring the utility of exosomes in a variety of therapeutic and diagnostic settings for some time,’ said Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Flagship Ventures. ‘We are excited by the premise and the promise of Codiak BioSciences and are delighted to partner with ARCH Venture Partners as co-lead founding investors in the company.’ Noubar Afeyan will serve on Codiak's board of directors.

The new US-based company, Codiak BioSciences, aims to become the world’s leading company in developing exosomes as a new therapeutic and diagnostic modality for the treatment of a wide array of diseases, including cancer. Its newly appointed CEO, Douglas E. Williams, Ph.D, has long experience of commercializing and working in the biotech industry. Most recently, he previously served as Biogen’s executive vice president, research and development. He joined Biogen from ZymoGenetics, where he was CEO and a member of the board of directors. During Williams’ tenure, ZymoGenetics was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb for $985 million.

‘I look forward to building a world-class team to harness the power of exosomes for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes. We seek to grow Codiak into the leader in this emerging field as we strive to make new, breakthrough medicines that provide significant and lasting patient benefit.’ says Douglas E. Williams, CEO of Codiak BioSciences.

Codiak will be located in the Boston/Cambridge metropolitan area and have just announced that it is to raise +80 MUSD in venture capital in the US in collaboration between Flagship Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners and the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Fidelity Management and Research Company, the Alaska Permanent Fund and Alexandria Venture Investments are additional members of the initial $80+ million Series A and Series B funding syndicate.

The team in Gothenburg will continue to support the development of Codiak as the most important thing is to get the new medicines to patients, but it is also a great partnering platform for further research at the University of Gothenburg within the exosome field.

For more information, welcome to contact:

Klementina Österberg, GU Ventures, +46 70 4401190, klementina@ventures.gu.se

Dr Jan Lötvall, the University of Gothenburg, +46 70 688 2005, jan.lotvall@gu.se

Jeffrey Krasner, Flagship Ventures, +1 617-840-9806, jkrasner@flagshipventures.com

About Exosomes
Exosomes are tiny membrane sacs, or vesicles, that are released by both healthy and cancerous cells. Substances from cell cytoplasm, including genomic DNA, various RNA species, proteins and lipids are encapsulated into exosomes and are shed into the extracellular environment. All fluids in the human body have been shown to contain exosomes, which can transfer the cytoplasmic ingredients to other cells either locally or at distant sites. The cytoplasmic payload within exosomes, once transferred to the recipient cells, can alter the biology of the recipient cells. Exosomes may be useful for diagnostic purposes since they contain genomic DNA for mutational analysis using a simple blood test. In addition, cancer-derived exosomes have specific markers that enable them to be isolated, purified and analyzed. Exosomes have been described as the package delivery system of the body because of their ability to be released from one cell and deliver their contents to distant cells. This property of exosomes may play an essential role in the formation of certain microenvironments in health and disease.

About GU Ventures: pls, visit www.guventures.com or http://ventures.gu.se/english in English

About Exosome Ventures: pls, visit http://ventures.gu.se/english/Portfolio/exosome-ventures

About the University of Gothenburg: pls, visit http://krefting.gu.se/ or http://krefting.gu.se/KRC in English

About Flagship Ventures: pls, visit http://www.flagshipventures.com

About Codiak BioSciences: pls, visit www.codiakbio.com.

Press coverage in the US:

Here is the link to the press release just made public in the US:

1. ARCH Venture Partners, Flagship Ventures and MD Anderson Collaborate to Launch Codiak BioSciences /PRNewswire/ – Nov 17, 2015 – Codiak BioSciences Inc. announced today the closing of the first portion of a planned $80+ million Series A and B financing: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/arch-venture-partners-flagship-ventures-and-md-anderson-collaborate-to-launch-codiak-biosciences-300179630.html
2. Codiak BioSciences – Nov 17, 2015 – Launches With $80M Financing to Develop Exosome-Based Products: https://www.genomeweb.com/business-news/codiak-biosciences-launches-80m-financing-develop-exosome-based-products
3. Wall Street Journal – Nov 17, 2015 – The Daily Startup: Datto Joins Herd of Billion-Dollar Startups
4. Bloomberg – Nov 17, 2015 – Ex-Biogen R&D Head Williams Thinks Small With Codiak Venture
5. Forbes – Nov 17, 2015 – Former Biogen R&D Chief Emerges at $80M Startup Pursuing Cancer, Alzheimer's
6. Chemical and Engineering News – Nov 17, 2015 – Codiak Is Launched To Exploit The Exosome
7. Xconomy – Nov 17, 2015 – Big Bucks, Tiny Bubbles: Ex-Biogen Exec’s Exosome Startup Nabs $80M
8. MedCity News – Nov 17, 2015 – Former Biogen R&D head launches exosome-based biotech with $80M
9. Fierce Biotech – Nov 17, 2015 – Employee No. 1: Doug Williams launches exosome R&D player Codiak Bio with $80M-plus
10. Boston Business Journal – Nov 17, 2015 – Biogen's former R&D chief lands at Flagship startup focused on cancer
11. Houston Business Journal – Nov 17, 2015 – M.D. Anderson helps form new $80M cancer treatment company: http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2015/11/m-d-anderson-helps-form-new-80-cancer-treatment.html